The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-12-19
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
The Free-Trade Message.

II
70 the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal
Having read and considered the message OF
de facto President Cleveland, and also the mes
sage of de iure President Blaine from Europe
where he now sojoulas instead of at the w hlte
House. in which q free ballot would undo ubted-
" have placed him, I am sorry to say cannot
agree with either of the distinguished gentle
men. It is obvious the President means TO
make his message the Democratic platform for
the campaign of 1888 and it would seem that
Mr. Blaine had accepted the issue thus rendered
and was willing to go before the country on the
tariff issue exclusively, forgetting. probably,
that able speech made at Augusta just after the
last presidential election, and which. had ne
made one month sooner and kept away from
New York, would undoubtedly have been elect
ed President of the United States. In that
speech Mr.. Blaine told the whole truth as to the
method of suppressing the ballot in euch I'M
questioned Republican States as South Carolina
Mississippi and Louisiana, which. with free
ballot. are surely Republican as Massa-
chuset.s, Vermont Ohio. / cannot. as Re
publican, consent that the question OF liberty
and the rights and privileges guaranteed oy the
Constitution shall be subordinated to any mere
question of revenue. When the time shall come
that every citizen in the South can freely vote
and have his ballot counted as cast. then l am
willing to take up the tariff or even the drink
question and dispose of them.
The anticipated surplus in the Treasury flor
it is not there now seems to cause the Presi-
dent great anxiety, and he must have the duty
taken from wool, which pays less than five mill
ions of dollars annually, and is largely pro-
duced in the Republican State of Ohio, but he
Is silent about sugar, which pays forty millions
of dollars a year, perhaps because there is lit
tie of the article Produced in that part OF the
solid South called Louisiana A few words from
him abou. the tax whisky and tobacco which
pay annually a sum equal to the whole expect
ed surplus. would not have been amss There
many worthy objects on which the surplus
could be spent He might have advised Con-
sress give the soldiers service pension, such
they deserve and must have ere long, but
that would not have pleased the South. The
surplus could be well spent in fortifying our
defenseless seaboard cities and in improving
rivers and harbors, or in building up navy OF
which we have next to none at all. If none OF
these things please him, there is still one left
for which there is precedent. the surplus could
be divided among the several States. Nobody
desires TO keep a large surplus in the Treasury
when there are so many ways in which it can
be profitably disbursed. l will repeat that the
question of liberty and the rights of citizenship
must not be postponed or placed second to any
other, whether 1t be tariff or temperance, but 1t
must be settled by the result of the approaching
presidential election. If a sound platform shall
be made at Chicago next June and citizen or
this State nominated who has demonstrated his
ability to carry the popular vote, Indiana will
no longer dangle the tail to the Democratic
kite, but take her place Republican State,
as in the days of Grant and Morton.
New CASTLE, Dec. IL. III. Il. BUNDY.